Salt City Hoops Utah Jazz Podcast Dan Clayton

After a pair of deadline week trades by the Utah Jazz, Mark Russell Pereira, Ken Clayton and Dan Clayton came together to talk about how the deals fit into Utah's ongoing rebuild and forecast just how bumpy the closing stretch could be after the resulting rotation shuffle.

On the eve of what will be a very different Utah Jazz season, Salt City Hoops' Dan and Ken Clayton came together to discuss six (and ultimately seven) big questions relating to the season and the club's future. They first spent a few minutes reacting to news about Jazz GM Justin Zanik's extended contract, and then dove in on questions about Utah's current talent and how they will aim to construct a contender on their current foundation of players and assets.

The Jazz finally made the deal everybody expected -- by making the deal nobody expected. They moved on from All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell, but not by trading him to the New York Knicks, whose pursuit of the Westchester County native had been well documented. Instead. the Jazz got three young players, three unprotected picks and a pair of first-round swap options from the Cleveland Cavaliers, who will be the next employer of a player who has brought Utah's fans a lot of joy for five seasons.

Mark Russell Pereira joins Dan Clayton to think back on what Mitchell's tenure meant for fans, and to react to the trade, both from a visceral and an analytical perspective. They look at the rebuilding period ahead of the Jazz and along the way philosophize about fandom.

The Utah Jazz's offseason saw yet another plot turn on Tuesday afternoon when Adrian Wojnarowski reported at ESPN that the club is increasingly "showing a willingness" to entertain trade offers for star guard Donovan Mitchell. The asking price is "steep," Wojnarowski reports, but the Jazz are reportedly listening.

Ken Clayton and Dan Clayton jumped in front of microphones to proffer their interpretations on just what this shift in language from the NBA's biggest newsbreaker does or doesn't signal. They also analyze the diverging paths in front of franchise leadership, and just for good measure scan the NBA landscape for teams with enough draft capital to meet a theoretical (or maybe not that theoretical anymore) Jazz asking price.

This week always had a high likelihood of being consequential for the Utah Jazz, but all date was erased with a major announcement that came Tuesday: Will Hardy will be the Jazz's next head coach. Ken Clayton and Dan Clayton used that news as a springboard to talk about the likelihood of imminent roster change. Each came prepared with a list of (ostensibly) budget free agents who could be available to fill out the roster around whichever Jazz players return for the 2022-23 season.

This Utah Jazz postseason could potentially define the next decade of the franchise, so it's worth analyzing all the ways it could turn out. To do that, Dan Clayton and Ken Clayton fired up the Salt City Hoops podcast to dive into Jazz-Mavs. They start by looking at how the games/series could change with or without Mavs star Luka Doncic, including examining how the Jazz have done in Luka's off-court minutes. Then they speculate about these "weapons" Jazz forward Bojan Bogdanovic says the club has been keeping in reserve, and finally wind through a couple of random topics that could influence the series.